Caribbean Cruise Trip Report: Day 8 & 9

Day 8:

On my last day of the cruise I had a long list of things I wanted to do. I started the day by going to get breakfast at Johnny Rockets on the Boardwalk. Once I was done with breakfast I went to the casino and had a really lucky morning on the slot machines. After playing for a long time I decided to go back to my room and to start packing.  I had been packing for a while when I decided to take a break and went to the wine bar, Vintages, for a lunch of tapas.  It was the best meal of the trip!  

The tapas I got at Vintages were delicious, especially the cheese stuffed peppers!

At 3pm I had the ice show to go to so I went and got a spot for that. I thought they did a pretty good job, especially for how much the ship was rocking.  It always makes me nervous watching them do all of those jumps on such a small ice rink and we did have a couple of wipeouts so that took a little away from the show for me.

I liked that they made it "snow" during the show

Fun for the whole family!

The sand artists on the right side of the picture drew scenes using sand, it was incredible!

Another sand portrait

They did lots of tricks and jumps during the show

This skater was my favorite. He had a lot of character and seemed to be having fun.

After the show was over I wandered through the Promenade and I finally got a chance to go into the pub and get my cider that I had been planning on drinking. I was even able to buy use my two-for-one coupon and get one for free!  I took one of the ciders up to my room to drink it while I got ready for dinner and then headed to the dining room.  I realized as I was getting ready that the sun was setting so I was able to go out on my balcony and take some really nice pictures of the sunset, which was a nice ending to my last day on the ship.  

Drinking cider at the pub on the Promenade

One last sunset from my balcony

For my last dinner of the trip I ended up sitting with my favorite couple that I met the whole week.  At the end of the dinner they gave me one of the wife's business cards, so I have already reached out to them and hope to keep in touch.  I sent her some links to previous cruise related posts, so she might even be reading this blog right now!  If so, "Hi Pamela"!

Once I was done eating I went back down to the casino hoping that my good luck would continue from the morning.  It really did stick around and I ended up winning back all of the money I spent in the casino during the whole week.  It felt good to break even!  At one point I had to stop gambling and go up to my room so that I could put my suitcase out in the hallway for them to take to the airport for me because I was using their luggage valet program.  I went back to the casino and kept playing for little while but eventually decided I was done gambling for the trip.  I went up to Central Park to walk through and enjoy the scenery one last time.  Then I went to bed shortly after that because I knew it would be an early morning the next day and that I would need plenty of energy in order to make it through a long day of travel.

Day 9:

I woke up earlier than expected on Saturday morning and was able to watch the last sunrise of my trip in the port.  It was beautiful!  

Next I ran down and got a coffee from Park Café and then came back upstairs so I could shower and get ready to leave.  Before long I was ready to hit the road and I went down to debark from the ship. As I was waiting in an hour long customs line I realized I had forgotten to eat breakfast in the buffet like I had planned! No wonder I was so hungry!

After a quick taxi ride to the airport I went to the information desk to find out if it was possible to catch a ride downtown because I wasn't able to go to my gate until two hours before my flight.  At this point it wasn't even 10am and my flight wasn't until after 4:30 in the afternoon.  Sure enough there was a free trolley that could take me downtown so I went outside and grabbed the trolley.  Once we arrived downtown I went into the welcome center and they were able to point me in the direction of a good breakfast place down the road.  She warned me that there would be a long wait but that the food was good enough that it would be worth it.  Sure enough the wait at the Old Fort Lauderdale Breakfast House was 50 minutes. The weather had warmed up and the sun had come out so I sat outside and drank some coffee while I waited for them to call my name. 

Once I was done eating I decided I was ready to head back to the airport.  I caught the trolley near the welcome center and rode back to the airport where they dropped me off.  I still had about an hour and a half before I could go through security so I got settled in a spot on the floor and relaxed until it was time to go through security.  At about 2:30 I headed to my gate and grabbed some food on the way.  I ate and charged my phone at the charging station until it was time to get on the plane.  

I had already decided I wanted to sit on the left side of the plane so that I would have a nice view of the sunset we would have on the way home.  I sat next to some really nice ladies who had also gotten off a cruise that day.  We talked about our trips and discussed the differences between our two ships.  

The flight felt really long so I was happy when we finally landed in Denver.  I met my mom, who came to pick me up, and we went to go grab my luggage.  Thankfully my suitcase had arrived and came out almost as soon as we walked up to the carousel.  I drove us home and I lugged my suitcase up the stairs. Very soon after that I collapsed into bed, exhausted from the long day of travel.

One last sunset for the week

I was sad to have the trip come to an end but also happy to get home!

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Overall, my trip was amazing!  It went by so fast because there was always something to do or see.  I didn't spend as much time relaxing as I thought I would, but I was happy that I did everything I had hoped to do on the trip.

Typically by now I would have already booked my next cruise, but I think I have gone everywhere I want to go on a cruise ship for the time being.  Eventually I would like to go on a southern caribbean itinerary and I'd also love to do a Mediterranean cruise, but I'm going to save those for later.  

I hope you enjoyed reading my trip report!  Thanks for following along!